WR lens issues

Hi, I'm really enjoying using my new K5, its a great camera. I got the two WR kit lens when I bought and also the 35mm f/2.4 standard lens.
The 18mmx 55mm f/3.5-5.6 isn't all that bad IQ wise, the only thing is it let in moisture under the front lens whilst out in light rain, I put it in a plastic bag with silican packets for two days and the moisture seems to have disappeared, thing is I dont trust taking it out in the rain again, has anyone else had this problem with their WR lens? The 50-200WR lens is working perfectly, just that it needs to be stopped down to f/11 at 200mm to get sharp images, the middle zoom settings are far sharper. Its a very handy sized lens. I'm really glad I got the 35mm standard at the same time, its excellent IQ wise and is very light.

According to service guys I've been in contact with a UV filter might be well worth the cost if dust, or moisture, is a problem for your lens(es). A favourite lens of ours is the Tamron 17-50/2.8, which is way better than the 18-55, but it is quite big in comparison! Lately the wife got a DA55-300, and that lens is surprisingly good, considering its low price. Very amateur comparisons by me, side by side with Tamron's 70-200/2.8 (I just love that lens), and the Sigma 120-400, and the Sigma150-500, using the same aperature, and focal lengths, show that as long as you don't need a good OIS (a.k.a. VR, or RS), the far lighter, and far cheaper, DA55-300 is not bad at all!

Tord, are you saying that you use lenses with OIS on the K5? Are you then disabling the K5 image stabilisation? I didn't even know that there are stabilised lenses with Pentax K-mount around.

Prieni,

Sigma 120-400 & Sigma 150-500 is the lenses I have, and yes, they have OIS, and it works well! You can have the camera SR on as well, but you'll get better results with only the OIS (the difference isn't that great if you use only SR, or SR + OIS).

In my book the Sigma 150-500 is the better one, but it is also longer and heavier, and neither of them are at their sharpest at their long end. The wife has a DA55-300 and overall, it is a much easier to handle lens, although it lacks OIS! And the results are amazingly good, no doubt about that! The colours are more vivid with the DA55-300, and it is the size of Tarmron's 90 Macro. The Sigmas are full format, but as the only FF cameras Pentax have made are old ones that lack the essential contacts that are used to power the lens. Thus these lenses can't be used on Pentax FFs, like my SFX. No way around that! Sigh!